Last year, about 1,745 UC Irvine students wrested the record away from the University of Alberta. Over the next year, however, several institutions of higher learning would lay claim to it, most recently Rochester Institute of Technology, which held a game with 2,136 players.

On Wednesday afternoon, students converged on Anteater Recreation Center fields as part of the university's annual Welcome Week, in which some 6,000 freshmen and transfer students become integrated on campus. The students also provided a rich recruiting ground for busting the record.

The event was so large that a corporate sponsor provided 1,000 dodgeballs while also refereeing the contest.

Guinness world record officials confirmed that a judge was on hand to officially record the event.